Mars Chocolate may increase local sourcing

"We are sourcing peanut, one of the main ingredients for the chocolate from India. We have an arrangement with the cultivators in Rajkot," said Andrew Leakey.Krishna Kumar | ET Bureau | August 05, 2017, 08:05 IST

KOCHI: Leading global chocolate company Mars Chocolate may go for increased local sourcing of ingredients for its products in India in the coming years.

At present, its Indian subsidiary Mars International India is producing the marquee brand Snickers from Pune factory. "We are sourcing peanut, one of the main ingredients for the chocolate from India. We have an arrangement with the cultivators in Rajkot," said Andrew Leakey, general manager, India, who was here for the launch of M&M chocolate, its sixth product in the country.

He said currently the other ingredients including cocoa and the other chocolate brands like Mars, Galaxy, Twix and Bounty are being imported. " At some point in future we will think of raising our local sourcing of ingredients," he told ET. Leakey also hinted that eventually other chocolate brands may also be manufactured in India.

M&M is the company’s largest selling chocolate globally. Mars Chocolate aims at expanding the nascent bite size category in India with a shareable snack for everyday occasions, he added

"We have outgrown the industry and are growing at 7% per annum. Snickers brand is growing at 30% in India. We plan to increase the growth to 40 to 50% this year," Leakey said.

The company has tied up with Lulu Hypermarket of the Lulu Group in Kerala for its M&M chocolates. "The awareness for chocolates is quite high in Kerala," Leakey said.